LF: Hidden secret of Gezer: A pre-Solomonic city beneath the ruins

Title: Hidden secret of Gezer: A pre-Solomonic city beneath the ruins
Source: [None]
URL Source: http://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/.premium-1.554228
Published: Dec 15, 2013
Author: Ran Shapira
Post Date: 2013-12-15 21:17:09 by A K A Stone
Keywords: None
Views: 40791
Comments: 66

A summer dig unexpectedly reveals remains of an unknown city beneath the known Canaanite one.

The walls in the ancient city beneath Gezer are as much as a meter thick. Photo by Samuel Wolff

Several pottery vessels, a cache of cylinder seals, and a large scarab with the cartouche of King Amenhotep III attest to the existence of a previously unknown Canaanite city in the land of Israel, archaeologists say. Where was it hiding? Underneath another Canaanite city – the famous ruins of Gezer.

The scarab and other artifacts were found this summer at a level dating from the Late Bronze Age (14th century BCE) in ancient Gezer, a major Canaanite city located along the strategic coastal highway between Egypt and Mesopotamia.

The first signs that there was an unknown city lurking there were found by Dr. Steven Ortiz of the Tandy Institute for Archaeology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Dr. Samuel Wolff of the Israel Antiquities Authority, who have directed the excavations at Gezer for six seasons. They believe the hidden city was destroyed during the Egyptian 18th Dynasty's rule over the southern Levant, and the new Gezer was built on top of it.

Amenhotep III, by the way, was the father of the heretic King Akhenaten and also grandfather to Tutankhamun, whose fabulous tomb was discovered in 1922 by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon.

Enter Reshef, the Canaanite war god

In the late Bronze Age, circa 1,400 BCE, Gezer, then the capital city in the region, was burned to the ground. Possibly it was another victim of the incessant internecine warfare between the Canaanite cities at the time, as described so evocatively in the well-known Tell el-Amarna correspondence.

It was while digging into the remains of this known devastation that the momentous discoveries were made.

The inhabitants of the proto-Gezer of 1,400 BCE were clearly Canaanites, said Ortiz. But artifacts found at the site indicate strong ties with Egypt.

For instance, there is the small cylinder seal found at the site, just 2.5cm in height, bearing a rare image of the Canaanite god Reshef subduing his enemies. Identification of the ruins with the biblical city of Gezer rely among other things on inscriptions found there: 'Boundary of Gezer' Identification of the ruins with the biblical city of Gezer rely among other things on inscriptions found there: 'Boundary of Gezer'Wikimedia Commons

Reshef, a central god in the Canaanite pantheon, was – inter alia – in charge of diseases, plagues and conflagrations. In the seal he is portrayed shooting an arrow from a big bow towards about ten rivals depicted in states of submission and fall.

Worship of Reshef was common in the New Kingdom of Egypt period, says Ornan – and the cylinder seal from Gezer shows clear Egyptian influence. The miniature depiction of the god is done in the style of the awe-inspiring Egyptian embossments that show triumphs of the pharaohs.

“The question is whether the Late Bronze Age Gezerites were supporters, or subjects, of the Egyptian 18th Dynasty," says says Prof. Tallay Ornan of the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University. "We know that during the 14th century BCE, the king of Gezer was responsible for various conflicts within the region. The Late Bronze Age destruction either represents an Egyptian campaign to subdue Gezer, or local Canaanites attacking an Egyptian stronghold at Gezer."

That's not a support system, that's a city

Gezer lies between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The archaeological team, some 80 staff and students from the U.S., Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Russia, Korea, and Hong Kong were removing a wall dating from later - the 10th century BCE, known as the Iron IIA period – and discerned a yet earlier city wall.

They had vaguely known the wall was there, but had thought it was a subterranean support system for the later Iron Age wall, Ortiz explains. “It became evident that our original interpretation was wrong," he says. The lower wall had been built as much as 200 years earlier; the 10th century CE wall had been built on top of it after the city's destruction by fire.

This earlier wall was one meter thick, and had several rooms attached to it. These rooms were filled with rubble nearly a meter in height, from catastrophic destruction. These earlier remains included shards from Canaanite storage jars, Philistine pottery and other items. A fragment of a Philistine figurine was also found.

Since Gezer was Canaanite, says Ortiz, the Philistine pottery either represents trade relations or a group of Philistines living among the Canaanites.

A city as dowry

As for the Egyptian influence, according to the biblical account, Gezer was conquered by an Egyptian pharaoh and was later given to Solomon as a wedding gift when the Israelite king married the pharaoh’s daughter.

Solomon is also recorded in the biblical account as having built walls around Gezer, as he did at Jerusalem, Hazor, and Megiddo, all sites currently under excavation. Excavations at Gezer have been regarded as a key to understanding and resolving the debate among biblical scholars and archaeologists regarding the appropriate chronology of events and ruling Israelite and Judahite kings.

Gezer is also famous for its massive ancient water-tunnel system, which is also currently under excavation. Last summer Dr. Tsvika Tsuk, chief archaeologist at the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, said the water system at Gezer was the largest Canaanite water system found in the country. It includes a large entrance carved in bedrock. From there, a 50-meter tunnel runs at a 39-degree slope. The tunnel is 7 meters tall and 4 meters wide.

Tsuk and his colleagues, Jim Parker, Daniel Warner, and Dennis Cole of the Old Testament and Archaeology at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, believe the water system was built in the Middle Bronze Age IIB (1750-1550 BCE). But it fell out of use around 1,300 BCE, based on pottery found at the end of last season’s work.

Are you out of your freakin' mind? Your posted article does nothing concerning any moral or intellectual improvement for anyone ... with exception of yourself. What the article PERFORMS as on the other thread that I have ensured you are aware that has been discussed between you and myself for the past couple of days; there are no facts about the Jewish exodus from Egypt anywhere on the planet. Certainly, if such a fact existed there would have been some data content about 1400 BCE. The article supports my contention that Egypt and all societies at that time had no knowledge of Moses. Why? The dude did not exist, except in the Bible.

The Bible was created by Jews after their exile in Babylon, circa 500 BCE. The Jews learned to write ideas by the Babylonians and when they departed Babylon for "Israel" created the Bible. The old testament (Tanakh) is just a pile of faebles, most of which can not be confirmed anywhere on the planet.

Take it easy, Buck. Archeologists have made some amazing finds in Biblical Holy Lands. Many millions of people have complete faith in the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments.

If you don't believe, so be it. If you are fortunate, God will have mercy on you and bring you to the faith that will keep you from going to that well-heated place in the afterlife.

Don't you sense an issue with your comment? I do, there is little or no FACT or substance to support the faith about "scripture."

"faith" as you seem to know the definition of the word is nothing more than rubbing your rubby-red slippers together and hoping Glinda, the good witch of the North waves her maejiick wand and you instantly get a pass back to Kansas. Although a pleasant thought, the world is often brutal in reality and creating daydreams to offset the challenges about the REAL world leads to nothing more than a waste of time.

The founders of this nation thought differently. You're not a cultural American.

What else can you call us? Obviously, you learned from the masters of rhetorical hate speech to label your opponents in an emotional tantrum to serve yourself without any objective evidence or factual substance.

You are as phony a Christian as your esteemed Beelzebub already breathes life into your soul, your mind and into your words on a little out of the way chit-chat forum; you have become that which you despise; you are the embodiment of the two horned creature.

You are acting like a troll. You go find a bunch of articles you think will make me mad. It's ok though. I enjoy your opinions and conversation.

Science is not a "friend" to any religion, pal. Religious doctrines, traditions and practices are not based on factual data but mere myth. What you call, "Christianity" is just 3 mile high conceptual view of about 200 religious creeds that ALL call themselves "christian" which lags any factual capability to support "faith" with actual data.

As always, you lose: you lack objective proof or substantive capability to discuss the issues. To prove my point, go use your faith and click your ruby-red slippers to eliminate the discussion: you shall realize the same nite-mare you have always seen.

Science is the friend of the Bible. It says things reproduce after like kind. That has never been contradicted. Find that contradiction in nature. You don't. Evolution didn't happen. Evolution isn't science. Science contradicts nothingin the Bible. In fact when fools like you thought the world was flat. Columbus was reading the Bible and seeing thast the world wasn't flat but round.

Does your wife have faith in you? If she does what is it based on? Or if she doesn't what is it based on? You can have faith in the Bible and Gods word they same type of way.

As usual on your chit-chat channel, you are wrong. Science demands critical thinking based on facts. The assurance of facts is based upon measurement and repeatable capability/capacity about ANY phenomena that is of interest. Suggesting that your Sunday school teacher instructed you that your "sins are clean" because you BELIEVE in Jesus is not measurable with the exception of a single point piece of data. It is of little interest to me and most of mankind because the phenomena is not repeatable with the exception of your continuous brain-washing at Sunday school.

BIG DEAL. All that is suggested is ordinary human experience of "likeness" or similarity of events is a common human experience.

Explain how Abraham and Sarah had sex at an elderly age and had a son, Isaac? Oh, a special GOD event? How do you really know the FACTS when all you have is a Bible that told you so and a continuing Sunday school mantra about this bullshit?

Just "hope" when in moments of threatening situations, most people hope for an easy way out of the potential non-survival mode of their existence; people want to survive on a continuous basis. It is akin to BIG GOVERNMENT mentality, which is how YOU have continuously voted for many election opportunities.

The issues of and about Jesus Christ occurred after his crucifixion not before the often read and popularized Biblical maejiickal event of the birth. You don't read many historical documents, do you?

The Roman Empire was collapsing from political decay. Jesus was one reason that was later used as a message of hope about the new world, eliminating Roman hierarchical political structures in Judah/Israel.

LOL Buck, then that "plan" really backfired now didn't it? The "contrived plan" led to the fall of the empire. Yes I know about that book by a non-scholar non- theologian.